Week 1 at Morales-Frazier

Well I have officially completed my first week here at good 'ole FOB Morales-Frazier.  I have begun to get in the groove of things here.  Some days I eat at the French DFAC (Dining Facility), some times I eat at the American one.  There is always the Kapisa Pizzeria or as I like to call it the Kapizzeria.  My team almost taken over for the new team.  My job has kept me pretty busy, but it is nothing that I can't handle.

I have already begun to make some new friends with the local nationals (LNs) and the French.  This deployment is definitely going to be a life-changing experience.  I am proud to serve my country and honored to be part of re-building Afghanistan.  I have had some tastes of Afghan food and even got to visit some of the bazaars.  As you can see from my photos, Kapisa is definitely a diamond in the rough.  Near the capital of this province is a natural phenomenon known as the walking sands.  It is basically sands trickling out and piling out of a mountain that never runs out.  If we had the time I wish that I could 

have gone out to see this up close.  The craziest thing about being here so far is the fact that the sun rises at 0530.  So when I get up early in the morning I feel like a slacker.  The sun also sets right around 1730. I don't know if it is because of winter, but when the sun sets...IT GETS DARK!!!  The little red light that we have to use to see at night is not enough some times.  There is constant construction going on so every day presents a new pot hole at night.  It looks like we should be able to move into our permanent rooms by December.  I don't really mind, but I would like to be able to listen to music (beyond the power of head phones) and I also would enjoy the added privacy.  Nevertheless, I have gotten used to the living in an open bay area.  So.... Inch Alla (God Willing) which is an expression used a lot here.  There are more pictures on the slide show under the clock.  I hope...I hope....

Stay Frosty,

JoJo

Mass in French

Well I am finally here at FOB Morales-Frazier and it is "very nice"(Borat Voice).  I was wondering if I was going to be able to go to church while deployed (because how many Catholic churches are in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan :-) )  But luckily the French have services.  It is part Latin, part French, but it is still the same schtuff.  Catholic does mean universal so I can take my ASB .  So I guess my cultural experience just got better.  Looks like I am going to be learning French and a little bit Latin (because I already knew some songs).  I will attach pictures of the FOB soon, but I am in the process of taking over for the guy that is currently doing my job.  Another thing about being here is that I get to eat at the French Dining Facility so it is pretty sweet. 

Stay Frosty,

JoJo

Manas is Wet, Bagram Blows

So I have been in Afghanistan for about three days now.  We did it in two days using a flux capacitor so the jet lag was pretty bad at first.  It took me a while to sell out and buy the wireless here which is 10 hrs for $10.  I will get back to that, but let me talk about Manas Air Base first.  Its in Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia.  This was a surreal experience at first because we were in the loving hands of the United States Air Force.  I forgot how blessed I was to be in a service where the People are first and everything is geared for your happiness.  My four months of Hell at Camp Atterbury made me forget what it was like to be appreciated as a service member by my particular service.  (if that makes sense)  Anyways, there were fun activities like Karaoke, Internet Cafes, and game rooms.  (Go Air Force!!!) Despite the fun things (and great spaghetti) we still had the toolish rules, like wearing reflective belts at night and stuff like that.  It also rained a lot at Manas.  Like Jurassic Park  level 5 bad.  

It rained on all of our bags for about eight hours straight and never stopped.  Luckily I lined everything with trash bags, so my stuff did not get wet.  Other than Manas being wet, I still loved it there.  I even got a little ethnic hat.  A Kyrgyz actually looks like an Asian except that they speak Russian.  It is kinda sad that we had to leave Manas so early, I would have like to explore the Kyrgyz culture a little more.  I slept through Karaoke, and the amenities were actually kinda sweet.  After that we loaded a plane and flew to Bagram Air Base.  I was finally in Afghanistan!  

The first thing I noticed about Afghanistan is that is looked exactly like El Paso, TX.  I mean eerily so... The mountains almost looked the same and there is sand and desert everywhere.  The sand created a lot of dust. Funny thing was that we arrived right before a sand storm.  Everything I have including myself is covered in sand.  The wind never really stopped, but being from the desert the dust didn't really affect my breathing like most members of the team.  (My eyes are a little itchy though)  It is also very cold at night.  I have never appreciated cold weather gear sooooo much.  The worst thing about Bagram is that it is commercialized in the wrong ways.  It is hard to believe that we have been here for nine years.  This base is really in the stone age compared to Manas.  The Internet that I am using is pretty cheap, but they install some software on your computer so that you can access it.  You true believers must know that I had to be really desperate for the Interwebs to risk my own Network Security.  Thats bad juju number one of many.  Another thing is that the BX can only be reached via shuttle which takes forever and is usually croweded (like El Paso ;-) )  So for the first couple of days I was shut off from the world (dramatic music)  I tried the calling center, but it only allows AT&T calling cards.  (I am not sure how the phones will be at my Forward Operating Base so stand by) At least at Manas any calling cards could be used.  Skype works the best according to Mom and Dad. (username SlimShamy85).  I know that I have been complaining a lot, but despite that I am really happy to be here and serving my country.  This is a once in a lifetime deployment and I am very excited to start doing my job.  I with a good team and we all take care of each other.  Next stop Kapisa!

Stay Frosty,

JoJo

I heart my Kindle

So I bought a Kindle e-reader today.  Let me tell you that it is fo-shizzle.  I am not getting paid by Amazon.com for saying this, but this has to be the best reader out there. While I am in CONUS (Continental United States for those non-Military folks ;-) )  I get free 3G access (Thanks AT&T!!!) and it is Wi-Fi capable.  It takes merely seconds for me to download a new book.  I made sure to get as many books as possible so that I can't get bored on airplanes.  You can download games for it too, but I am not really into that.  The main reason that I went with the Kindle and not the Nook (by Barnes & Noble) is the free book selection and the fact that Amazon has converted some of my textbooks to Kindle format.  So (ensh Allah) I can try to take some college classes if I have time.  I only have three course and a disertation left for my Masters.  I know I have really been slacking.  Oh well.  The only con that goes with the Kindle and other e-readers (except for the I-Pad, but thats not only an e-reader) is that there is no backlight.  This means that you need a reading light at night.  The plus side to that is that I have a month's standby on my Kindle.  The book that I am reading right now is "Becoming Batman" I am about 30% done and will right about when I am finished.  But it basically explores if it is scientifically possible for a human being to become Batman in a life time.  Pretty Sweet huh? 

Stay Frosty,

JoJo

Goodbye Camp Atterbury

Final days at Camp Atterbury, Indiana after living here for nearly four months.  Even though the Intel training I received here was sub-par...we still had fun.  The first month and a half of training actually only averaged about 3 hrs of actual training a day, but we made due with the white space.  Like the Air Force guys Beiberizing the Navy side of the dorm in the first month, to being able to actually leave base and watch movies and go to various restaurants around Indiana.  In the end the Navy guys finally got the last laugh.  They decorated the entire side of our barracks with Disney Princess birthday party stuff.  They got K-Fed pretty bad because he was behind most of the other practical jokes on the Navy side. Then we got dispersed amongst the PRTs and specialized in our Area of Operations.  The rest of my team showed up and thats when we got to do some really cool Army stuff.  You can see some of the activities that we did below.  We really came together as a team and excelled in all aspects of the training.  I am definitely happy to be part of the Air Force, because Army training follows a Crawl, Walk, Run approach.  This creates the whitespace that I mentioned above earlier.  Sometimes I think that the time could have been used more efficiently, but it is hard to train thousands of people.  In the end everyone is trained and ready to fight the good fight (literally) in Afghanistan!

Stay Frosty,

JoJo

Welcome to my Blog

Hey Everyone,

Welcome to my Blog.  I haven't really had a blog in around five years, but going to Afghanistan is pretty interesting.  I know that many of you have wanted my address over there, so here it is:

Joseph Shamy (No Rank)

PRT Kapisa

APO AE 09354

I will expand more on what I will be doing in further blogs, but I just wanted to give a first shout out to all who have shown great support for me in this deployment.

Mom, Dad, and Nicole

Ninang Winnie and Ate Nanette

Mommy Minda and Daddy Jun

Eric and Molly

The Lantican Family

Grandma Lupe

Uncle Dan and Aunt Dora

Uncle Mark

Little Tony

Little Mark

My brother Paul and his family

My best friend Kaz and his family

The Snow Family

The Wagner Family

Friends at my Dad's VFW

Thank you all for giving me a great send off while I was back home!

Stay Frosty,

JoJo